When I was still learning English in one of my ESL classes many years ago, I remember when we had to write a short essay. I can’t recall the topic, but I remember that I had already started to feel more comfortable with the language and my writing skills. So I felt quite confident when I was handing it in to the teacher. On the day when our teacher returned the essays to the class, she looked at me with a smile and, in front of the whole class, she said, “Great job, Daniela. You are so good that with some more practice, I see you reaching almost a native level.”
My classmates were astonished and congratulated me enthusiastically, but at this very moment my heart sank. While they had focused on the word “native,” all I had heard was “almost.” Although I didn’t say anything, a voice inside of me was screaming: “Why did you have to say “almost?” I felt that whatever I do now or might do in the future, would never be enough. I would always be “almost.”
Although I am convinced that my teacher had never intended to deprive me of hope that one day I would be able to write “like a native,” I couldn’t help but question my abilities. To me, at that time, “a native level” meant making no mistakes and building sentences that would feel natural to the reader.
What does near-native mean?
But now I know that what my teacher said was a compliment. In linguistics, the term near-native (what I think she probably meant) is used to describe speakers who have achieved such a level of proficiency that they can barely be distinguished from native speakers in everyday communication. But I didn’t know that many years ago. In fact, I only recently found out what this term meant.
Mind you, there is a difference between feeling and sounding “near-native” and the “sound like a native” wave that has erupted in recent years. You can be perceived as near-native if you use correct grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and body language. You can also feel near-native if you are culturally acclimatized in a way that you understand all nuances of the culture you live in. Lately, however, I’ve been hearing more and more nonnative speakers expressing their desire to sound “like a native.”
This comes as a result of the negative bias that many native (and some nonnative) speakers have against people with certain foreign accents. For example, some studies show that speakers who come from Western European languages, such as German, Dutch, Swedish, and French languages are perceived to be more trustworthy, and even more intelligent. On the other hand, speakers whose native languages are Russian, Chinese, Arabic, and some others are trusted less and perceived to be less friendly. In addition, many people with foreign accents have reported a feeling of “otherness” and “unbelonging.” This is problematic for immigrants who hope to build a life and career in the United States. After all, we humans are social creatures and we strive to belong.
English as a lingua franca
But the reality is that it’s almost impossible for most people who started speaking English as adults to sound indistinguishable from native speakers. And in today’s global world, this is not needed either. English is an international language and has become a lingua franca – a common language among non-native speakers. But if you live in an English-speaking country, you can still achieve a near-native fluency and feel a part of the culture.
Five factors that lead to near-native fluency
Below are five factors that will help you to become a fluent and confident communicator. They have certainly worked for me.
1. Motivation and faith in your abilities
Motivation is a great tool because it stimulates people who want to feel like a part of the culture. To find motivation, think of something that you really want to achieve – like getting a job in the US, for example, or going to college in an English-speaking country. However, keep in mind that while motivation is a great factor, it can also be fragile. That is, it comes and goes. One day you might feel super motivated, and the next day you don’t feel like practicing. What has helped me in days when I lacked motivation, but didn’t have the habit of practicing yet, was faith. Not a religious faith, but faith in my ability to learn anything I put my mind into. So even when you lack motivation, still trust that if you do the work, positive results will be inevitable.
2. Mindset
You have probably heard about the difference between fixed mindset and growth mindset. People with a fixed mindset believe that talent and intelligence are innate and if you lack talent for learning foreign languages, for example, you will never be able to learn English well. On the other hand, people with a growth mindset believe they can develop any skill if they work hard enough.
I must say that I grew up in a country, where a fixed mindset was a more common approach to life. In Bulgaria, I often heard people describing someone who “was born” to do certain things. I’ve had this belief ingrained in me since a very young age and it wasn’t easy for me to change my mindset. I remember, for instance, when as a kid I was dying to play rhythmic gymnastics, but a few different coaches said that this sport wasn’t for me because I was too tall. They didn’t care about how strong my desire was and how hard I was willing to work. They just pointed out a physical feature that I couldn’t change.
But when I came to the US, I saw that many people have a growth mindset and I liked it. Since then I’ve learned many different things that I had never thought possible.
3. Confidence
Believing in your abilities to learn a foreign language is often more important than drilling phrasal verbs and idioms. Many people say that confidence comes with knowledge and I agree with that. But I also think that being confident in your abilities to acquire a skill is salient. That is, not your actual knowledge, but the belief in your ability to gain knowledge.
I often see people who know tons of words and grammar, but still don’t feel confident because someone has told them that English is hard and they don’t believe they will ever be fluent. So they keep studying more with the hope that confidence will come along with more words, more slang, more idioms, more grammar, more, more, more, … But the truth is that “more” is a mirage if you lack confidence in the first place.
When I was a kid, my mom used to say that English is easy and, although I didn’t start learning it seriously until I was an adult, I wasn’t scared. I just believed that it was easy (even when it wasn’t). You can do the same. Just tell yourself that you are a capable person and you can learn anything if you put time and effort into it.
4. Listening
Listening is extremely important, especially in the beginning. The more you listen, the more you can distinguish between different sounds and grammatical structures. American linguist Stephen Krashen discusses the importance of comprehensible input:
The best methods are therefore those that supply ‘comprehensible input’ in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are ‘ready’, recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production.
Although in the quote above Krashen discusses the very early stages of a second language acquisition, listening is an important part even when you already know some English. The more you listen, the more acquainted you become with the suprasegmental parts of the language, such as rhythm and intonation.
5. Speaking
Many people find speaking to be the most challenging. It is, however, the most important when it comes to human connection. It’s important to understand that no one has ever learned a foreign language without making tons of mistakes. I mean, NO ONE. So try to speak as much as you can. This will have a positive impact not only on your English, but on your confidence as well.
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As for me, many years have passed since I forgave my teacher for her “almost native” comment. In fact, she didn’t need to be forgiven for anything. She was actually praising me. I understand this now. And although I can’t deny that every time someone compliments my level of English, the corners of my mouth spread a little wider, I’m not so hung up on perfectionism anymore. I just want to be able to write and sound like MYSELF, express MY ideas, and share MY experiences.
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Has anyone unintentionally made you feel like you would never be able to reach an important goal? Share with me in the comments.
English is more than memorizing vocabulary and studying grammar. A language is meant to be spoken. Click here to join our free Speaking Club and become the confident speaker that you know you can be.
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Has anyone unintentionally made you feel like you would never be able to reach an important goal? this is your question and I can tell you that two of what I thought them friends, ,intentionally discouraged me and by that ,they gave me the ambition and pushed me forward to achieve my goal !
Let me begin with the first friend ,I met him in what we call it in my country Tunisia ?? orientation sessions ( sessions by the ministries of education and higher education for students who finished high school studies and they want to carry on studies in higher education). That friend when he saw the paper of orientation where I put English language as a major study and he said to me literally ” will you achieve Success in choosing English language to study it in University and have a degree in it ?! ”
The second friend ,I met him in the institute I choosed to carry on my higher education studies ! He was the only person ,I knew from my town ,I thought that he would support me ,but, I was shocked when he said to me literally after he found out that I will study English language ” hey Bill , listen ,You will never succeed in English ” and he sweard by God that I would never reach success ! Few years later ,I met him in my hometown while taking a cab to downtown Tunis ,he asked me and I told him that I got the Master degree in English for International Relations and from that day on , whenever he sees me he turns his face away and he doesn’t want to look at me ,he keeps doing that till writing these lines !
Life keeps surprising us by making us come across people who can be good like blessings or bad to give us lessons .So we have to be thankful to those poeple who were bad to us and by doing that ,they could give us the ambition and the strong determination to achieve Success in our lives !
My compliment and appreciation to you Daniela ! You are awesome ?
B.
Wow, thank you for sharing. It hurts when that kind of “advice” comes from people who we consider friends. But you know what? They were projecting their own limitations on you. They told you that you wouldn’t succeed because they believe that they wouldn’t succeed if they had been in the same situation. That kind of people always hold us back. It’s great that you didn’t listen to them and you followed your dreams.
On a different note, I wanted to tell you that my husband used to live in Gabes, Tunisia when he was 12-13. He always tells me great things about the country and I would like to visit some day ?.